Some quite interesting data points in a new report from app marketing firm App Annie suggest that China has now overtaken the United States as Apple’s top market for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps, with a fifteen percent higher App Store revenue than the U.S. in the September quarter.

Chinese users spent more than five times the amount they spent just two years prior in the App Store.

Apple is set to open a new brick-and-mortar outlet at the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, a $4 billion train transit station in Lower Manhattan, in less than a week, on Tuesday, August 16, at 12pm ET. The firm announced that its tenth store in New York City, located at 185 Greenwich Street, is located in the lower level section of the Oculus Transportation Hub.

Jason Barlia, who is Market Director for Apple’s New York stores, confirmed today to CNET plans to open a brand new brick-and-mortar store at the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, a $4 billion train transit station in Lower Manhattan. The forthcoming store will be opening doors to shoppers later in 2016.

Apple is running a new promotion in its retail stores in the United States and United Kingdom, treating anyone who’d sign up for Apple Pay this week to a free $5/£5 iTunes gift card, according to MacRumors which first caught wind of this news.

Free money is always appreciated, more so given that iTunes credit can be used for any purchase made in an Apple Store, whether purchasing an accessory, an Apple product or an iTunes/Apple Store gift card.

Wednesday, TechCrunch relayed a new survey by market research firm Kantar Worldpanel which underscores a small victory in Apple’s global rivalry with Android as the company overtook Android vendors in terms of units shipped in the United States during the last three months of 2014.

Driven by the introduction of its larger-screened iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple took a 47.7 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market. Android grabbed a 47.6 percent share and Windows Phone accounted for just 3.8 percent of smartphone sales.

Three, one of UK’s top wireless companies, yesterday began turning on its new fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in select locations. The carrier claims to run the UK’s fastest-growing 3G network which covers more than 97 percent of the country’s population.

In addition to Three’s first LTE sightings in the UK, the company is also extending its Feel At Home roaming service to the United States, starting today. The U.S. joins other countries where Feel At Home has been available, including Austria, Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden.

The service allows Three’s UK-based Feel At Home customers to use their voice minutes, text messages and cellular data for no charge while traveling outside the UK and roaming the aforementioned countries…

Following Apple’s Black Friday deals that went live yesterday on the Australian web store, the company this morning refreshed its United States and Canadian outlets with 2013 Black Friday promotion.

Just as we suspected, this year the iPhone maker has rather disappointedly opted not to offer actual discounts on products and instead is luring shoppers with Apple Store Gift Cards, redeemable against purchases solely at a later date.

Apple has never offered deep Black Friday discounts and this year’s gift card-only promotion will no doubt disappoint bargain hunters who’ll be better served shopping elsewhere (iDownloadBlog has you covered with a comprehensive roundup of Black Friday deals)…

If you live in the United States and are a fan of the English Premier League, good news as 148Apps reports that NBC’s Sports Live Extra app for the iPhone and iPad will be streaming all of the matches, right as they happen in real-time. The English Premier League is the single largest sports league in the entire world so you don’t need me to tell you why this is newsworthy. Streaming matches will be free to subscribers of one of the eligible cable providers. Full details are right after the break…

Apple’s iWatch trademark filing world tour could hit major roadblocks in the United Kingdom and over in Apple’s home turf of the United States, it has been discovered.

According to two separate reports, a small California firm has taken steps to trademark ‘iWatch’ in the United States.

And over in the United Kingdom, a network services firm owns a Community trademark on ‘iWatch’, basically a trademark that applies across the European Community, which includes Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, France,, Netherlands, West Germany, Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal and Spain.

As a result, Apple is likely going to have to either pay these companies to buy the trademark or face a legal battle should it in fact decide to launch a rumored wristwatch product…

OMG, Apple is screwed! In another data point proving Apple doomsayers need to re-run their spreadsheets, research firm comScore reported Thursday its latest survey of the United States market for smartphones has found Apple’s iPhone widening its lead over second-ranked Samsung, which has gone up one percentage point to grab a 21.3 percent share of US-owned smartphones during the three month average period ending February 2013.

During the same timeframe, Apple’s slice of the pie has gone up from 35.9 percent in November 2012 to 38.9 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers in February 2013, an increase of 3.9 percentage points. The good news doesn’t stop here: Apple’s iOS has increased 3.9 percentage points to 38.9 percent, matching Apple’s aforementioned smartphone share.

Google’s Android platform, available on numerous devices from dozens of manufacturers, still ranked as the top smartphone platform with a healthy 51.7 percent market share in February 2013, but it has dropped two percentage points from the November 20121 53.7 percent share…